What did I do in 2023?

 

Chairs from church Christmas event on Dec 31. Clear view across vacant lots where there used to be houses until Feb last year. Neighbours bikes.

When I discovered both my blog and blood tests had nothing between Jan and Nov last year, I wondered what I was doing all those months.

After checking other records, here are some things I want to remember from 2023, in no particular order.

~Our home became both bigger and smaller around Feb 2023. Until that point, we had relatives living with us and neighours in their house over the fence. But at that point the relative moved out, the house torn down, and boys moved into the back part of ours. 

~Recovering from 2022. Those Two Big Things of 2022 left such an impact. We travelled to the capital city 3 times in the first half of the year to help with that. The second half of the year a new activity started here on Tuesday afternoons which seemed to even things out. In fact, most in 2023 were impacted by 2022. Our household, our homeschooling etc.

~A strange and scary heat wave happened in May. Normally March and April are hot and we take 6 weeks off school. Then back to lessons when it gets cooler in May. But in 2023 May was actually hotter!!!! I did more reading aloud than normal lessons to survive that. An American had just given us some of her old books so it was good timing.

~ Homeschool next stage. When I first learnt about homeschooling the focus was on doing a bit of English and maths each day. Then the pandemic broke out and it gave us time to start daily desk habits to that end. It felt like it was going really well from late April 2020 until Feb 2022.

 When our daily habits were abruptly stopped in Feb 2022 I spent most of the rest of the year thinking I would go back to how we had been homeschooling. It had all suddenly ended with an emergency trip to hospital. I kept feeling like I was waiting for things to calm down and we could pick up where we left off. Sometimes in late 2022 I realised that was never going to happen nor should it. Not only was life different now since the hospital but there were other factors. The pandemic was over so life is busier, our household makeup and ministry is different AND the children are really different ages now. April 2020 they were at the stage where I was wanting to do a bit of maths and English each day as the main intentional desk-type work.  But maybe almost a year ago I realise I was starting to think about where I want my eldest to be academically wise in 5 years. So actually we will never return to those first 2 years of desk work. Late last year we started transitioning over a curriculum which I hope will see us through many years. Low stakes, easy to try it out now. Apart from those 2 months when the internet was unstable. Despite the disruption, I think we are getting the hang of it. 

~Role reversal in reading. I used to read to my kids and now I need them to read to me. (Pre-pandemic when I took the children to the supermarket I would try to point out English letters on food packets to help them start to learn to read. An unexpected 2.5, almost 3-year gap in their supermarket trips happened and it feels like they can suddenly read! No longer am I pointing out letters, but they are just picking things up to read them. And also...I can't read small print anymore, so I ask them to help me read food packets.) 

~Movies and books! I read lots of stories about Khmer history. I listed some of them on this blog already and intend to record the rest later. The dry list doesn't tell you about how amazing all the stories are and what it was like to read them but I don't have the energy for that yet. Just quickly recording that I read them last year, maybe I'll come back to that later.

My children and I went to see The Rise of Gru at the cinema, was that in late 2022?. They loved the outing and with 3.50usd a ticket it felt very doable. So since then, we have seen many movies! Once with a new friend from Tuesdays. Although the last 2 times it cost 4usd. we also saw a couple of free movies by the pool at a hotel. Although we spent lots of money on food so they were not really free!

`~ I think I lost my purple scarf that I received from students in 2006. It had a good life. It could be somewhere in our messy house, but most likely fell off me while bike riding or walking?

~ Quick visits from Aussie families. I guess with travel possible now everyone was getting on planes last year. We took a few of them to the nearby newly opened gardens and a few others came to our house.  Three families used to live here at different times, one family I knew from school (I met her in 1987?!), another 3 families live in other parts of Cambodia and I first met them at church or Bible college in Aus.

(A boring list mainly for myself: 

J,S with H and L stopped by our house to drop off medical stuff, they used to live here just before covid so it was fun to see them again. 

R,S with N and his 2 younger siblings also used to live here many years ago when our firstborn were toddlers, they stopped by and the ex- toddlers played soccer! 

An old school friend and her family were touring, we met up with them at the gardens and saw the landmine rats together.  

C and K and S who used to live here also were back in SR for a bit and we hung out in the gardens. Our firstborn also knew each other as toddlers. 

K and her 2 girls from another province had a spare day in town so we hung out at the gardens. I don't thnk I had met her children before, the main time I spent with her was when we were both single at Bible college.

Later in the year 2 Aussie families from PP visited our house, we fed them breakfast. One of them actually came at breakfast time.

Maybe there were some others, I can't remember. We also saw at least 3 Aussie ladies who brought gifts and medical stuff. So my kids got to hang out with lots of Aussie this year, although none they can see in a normal month. And we went to those gardens so many times and kept meaning to go back ourselves but we seem to only go with friends.)

Third and final new year of 2019

So I'm  a little late with this. Two years late in fact. 

The year 2019 started with the international new year, as I mentioned here NEW!, then we had the Chinese New Year as I described here FIRSTS, then in April the Khmer New Year. 

I did mention a bit here HOT but I still had these other things I wanted to remember. And that two years has passed I still want to record them here along with the perspective from now.

At the time I didn't get around to posting the photos and writing about it but I remember that I wanted to  remember that we said goodbye to the N family, that we had our last play at Rosy before it closed and that the children were creating things faster than I could take photos of them.

A soccer party, a snake and some sickness after KNY, as well as hot weather and grumpiness and a lady burning her protection belt were among the notable events I listed in my notes. And we got to know the neighbours more during that holiday time. Well, Soeun and his mum did I guess. But I'll stick with the main three things here.

Goodbye poolside party March 2019

Playgroup morphing 

Since our children finished at preschool we had been meeting a couple other families for playdates. I already knew of two mums, or "moms" who had children the same age as our second child. As soon as we said goodbye to part time preschool, I contacted them and we started meeting weekly at each others houses or a playroom in town.  A few other families joined our trio. But in March 2019 one of these families left Cambodia.  Perhaps the first big goodbye for our children.

And then March 2020 the other left! Our youngest said now she had no friends, those 2 had been her weekly age mates since she finished preschool. COVID shut down happened just after that, so there was no chance for her to get to know others. An ever changing remnant of the group exists, but between children starting school, COVID, and others leaving the days of the regular originals are over. Almost all the places we used to meet are closed as well.

Goodbye Rosy

Pregnant and with energetic toddler, moving to SR was exhausting. Rosy restaurant and guesthouse had food my child and then children liked plus a playroom. And a nice riverside view. WIth the chance of running into friends. So it was sad to visit for the last time in March 2019, before they closed down forever! I think they had been around for maybe 14 years, so it was a big deal for many.

A year later the whole town shut down! March 2020 in a tourist town, terrifying. Some businesses are still limping along despite that there is not tourist visa at the moment. And despite massive roadworks.  Getting anywhere is an adventure.

Making things

Costumes, chicken house, puppets. That is what I wrote in the notes for this post. I can't remember the details but I remember being amazed at all the children's creations and felt like I wanted to record them.

I think the chicken house was outside made of old bricks, and the puppets might have been toilet rolls. From Sept 2019 to now I have been taking photos of their creations and posting them in monthly FB albums.

Two years on, sooo many more creations and drawing. I gave up recording each one as there are just too many. Like yesterday, a stretcher for the war wounded toilet roll was constructed out of an old mask.

I had more photos ready, and I would have written things differently at the time so its not the post I planned. But happy to record these events here, I'm sure another two years we will will have forgotton some details.

Sick, Stateless and Starving. (January 2020 catch-up journal)

"This month feels like an impossible mountain to climb. It also feels like time travel, as if we are back in 2006."

I didn't post on this blog for a few months as I lost interest in reading and wrting, but now I'm feeling ok, I feel like catching up. So here is a bit of what I wrote to friends in early January: 

"Hi friends, hope you are staying cool and safe today, the news from Australia is awful!

This month feels like an impossible mountain to climb. It also feels like time travel, as if we are back in 2006.

If we don't hike up the mountain of our January to-do list it feels like we will be sick, stateless and starving.

Happily we have reconnected with 4 friends from 2006 who are helping us with this mountain.

......... life admin is going to consume more time, energy and money than usual this month. Feeling overwhelmed!"

Expat life admin means a trip to the capital city

Also that month on Facebook I posted a link to a news article about a new virus. During SARS in 2003 I lived in China so I was interested to read about this new corona virus. 

I started remembering all the crazy things that happened during that time, and all the hype around it. 

Friends evacuated back to the USA overnight, no time to say goodbye. 
I had a go bag packed AND was stocking up on food. Go or stay??? 
We were constantly checking the CDC and the WHO websites, as well as news sites and exchanging all the wild stories people were telling. Thankfully no Facebook back then or it would have felt even crazier.
Those 5 days in quarantine  when a friend was in hospital as a suspected SARS case. 

I decided that I wouldn't get caught up in all the hype this time around, it was fun last time, but I don't have spare time and energy now, with a family and sickness. Planned to try to stay informed but to try not to become too obsessed. 

If I wrote this at the time I probably would not have thought to include a bit about the 'Rona, but as I'm writing in April, after it turned the world upside down, it gets a mention.

Photo credit: unsplash

Time capsule 2019

Contents page of my 2019 family news posts on the blog

January- New!
New! New! New? New year?

February (and a bit of March) Full of firsts and fun.

Hot season (end of March and April)- when I write it I'll link it here. Only a year late? I have notes and photos somewhere.. I did also write this: Hot season, homeschool and holidays

EDIT UPDATE: here is hot season 2019, 2 years late...

May? I think I just enjoyed the cooler weather and finally cleaned the homeschool room after letting it go over hot season.

June- 4 surprises
as well as A sandwich of sickness stories

July- Healthcation

August- September- more health posts such as I was happy to find out again that my thyroid....


October 

...and then November and December I just didn't feel like reading or writing at all- weird.

October Symptoms

October Link up with A Chronic Voice- prompts Waiting, Parting, Persevering

WAITING

Waiting...for a year now I've been waiting to either feel better or find out why I feel unwell. Around October last year I found out it was my thyroid causing the issues...then a month or so later found out it wasn't. Then in July this year I found it I do have thyroid issues, but then this month found out its not thyroid....

This season of life feels a bit like a dream. Partly because I'm sleepy all the time, no matter how much sleep I get, and partly because things are easier now. 2011-2017 were really stressful years, but over the last year or so at least three big stressors have gone. I keep thinking about school teachers who are so busy during term, then when they have time off end up falling sick. I feel like that's what happening here. Previously I had to put a  lot of effort in to survive, now I need to lie down for many hours a day to survive.

So I haven't been blogging etc very much since early September, instead posting photos everyday on here, its public so you should be able to see them? And also in monthly Facebook albums, as well as noting some sickness stuff in a Facebook group called Katherine's Kronicle.

PARTING

Sometimes life in an expat community is like this:

You go to church and run into a friend you haven't seen since she said goodbye and moved out of Cambodia.

Actually today I saw 2 friends who left years ago and just moved back in recent months ( I knew one from playdates and one from Bible study group).

Also, you see another friend whose time in the country is coming to an end.

Actually today I saw 2 friends who will move back to their respective passport countries next year.

And if those reminders of goodbyes weren't enough there was someone at church wearing a recently departed friend's clothes.

Actually there were at least 2 of us there today who were wearing the departed friend's clothes.

(When people move back to their passport country they usually shed many of their belongings. We have furniture, clothes, books, kitchen stuff, toys etc etc from departed friends.)

Sunday October 20th

PERSEVERING 

Some bits of pieces of my symptom experience this month:

I suddenly feel disorientated. It can happen when I'm in the middle of doing something normal. Its alarming and confusing and its been happening for just over a month. I think it might be because I actually forget what I'm doing while I'm doing it. Such a bizarre sensation.

In other news it might not be a coincidence that brain fog began about a month after I started on Vitamin D supplements (following doctors orders after a blood test). (October 22)

By the time I noticed it was already too late. I was only standing one pace away from the fry pan yesterday but the food burnt anyway. Perhaps its a memory issue, or perhaps my brain can't process very many things at once these days. I must have been able to smell smoke, but it didn't register because of everything else going on. I think I'm just going to call it brain fog. Its been getting worse over the last couple weeks, so we 're wondering what the next step is for my health. My last check up was 3 months ago and I was given somethings to try, hopefully to help with fatigue but so far it feels like it hasn't helped.

While its been distressing and frustrating for me to not be able to do things like I used to, at least I haven't had to explain it to Soeun. He already knows what its like from his own experience, the onset of his fatigue etc back in 2011. We've done this before (experienced onset of invisible symptoms) second time doing anything is generally easier. And this time we are in a stable stage of life, not hitting all the big stressors like moving house, job, country etc. MUCH less stress! (October 14)

"But that's normal for me."

Earlier this year when a doctor told me I might be anemic and have Hashimoto's, I joined some relevant Facebook groups. Some things that group members called "symptoms' I was familiar with but I had never thought to call a symptom, as they have been part of my life as long as I can remember. Hair fall, bruising easily, feeling dizzy and seeing black when standing up to name a few. (October 24)

Thanks for reading, hopefully it made some sense. Since early September I have been burning food, dropping things (including my phone, which broke and cost a lot to fix) and spending a lot of time lying down doing nothing, to recover to prep for the essentials. Due to conflicting medical advice I'm not sure what is next.

Photo credit: Facebook, I couldn't find where exactly it was from though, must have been a chronic illness page I follow, get in touch if its yours.

4 surprises in June

"Give him 4.5ml once a day."

I couldn't understand what the nurse was telling me, although I knew I should be able to, and I knew it was important. My son had a scary looking infection, with a weird red line growing out of it. Why couldn't I understand the instructions? And what would happen to my son if he didn't take the antibiotics correctly? What if his blood got infected?

It felt like there wasn't much action in the logical part of my brain, the fear response was taking over. My brain was tricking me into reliving the emotion I had when my husband was sick. Even though it was more than seven years ago it felt like it just happening in the present. The counsellor had explained it to me almost 12 months before, and the book I happened to be reading in the waiting room explained it to me on the spot. ( A Sandwich of Sickness Stories) That's what can happen after a "big T trauma".

I memorised the instructions (still without understanding) and repeated them to Soeun when I got home, and he gave our son the medicine. Part of it was written down in Khmer language but not in full detail.   

Just popped out the front gate to take this while cooking dinner.

Surprise 1
Dealing with my health was more urgent than I had thought! The last few months I have just been dealt with my post trauma stuff mostly by avoiding triggers, like thinking about going to Australia. But right at the start of June both our kids needed medical attention and I realised I wasn't really well enough to take care of them. Seeing a family member in pain can also be a trigger. Now I get why they tell you to put on your own oxygen mask first, before helping others. 

Surprise 2
It was too hard to arrange things for me to get help- that was our position over the last few months. But in the first week of June it switched to- it would be too hard to keep going without getting help. 
The surprise was that when we actually started planning things fell into place. And it will give us a chance to deal with a couple of other things too.

Surprise 3
Back in January we finished up with our Khmer church. We decided for 6 months we would just go to House Church (English speaking). It was nice for me, but weird for Soeun. We didn't have a plan for when the period of time was over, but just at the right time a new church popped up in our commune. Soeun has already been visiting and now it seems like its going to work.

Surprise 4
On the last day of the month Soeun started getting messages from his neighbourhood football team. A farming accident was in progress and ended up being fatal. Such a shock.

So here we are at the start of July, with the mournful music and monk chanting sounds all across the neighbourhood  from around 5 or 6 am. And it seems like mostly our days are filled with errands and admin, which are mostly health related.  Tomorrow is the funeral of the boy who was killed. Also its  our daughters 5th and final post exposure needle from her dog bite last month.  It feels a bit like a full stop of all surprises. Not sure what the next bit will look like! 

I didn't really think through this blog post as much as usual, feels like there is a lot going on and wanted to record it as it happens. Hopefully it made sense!

February (and a bit of March): Full of firsts and fun. {Time capsule}

Straight after  I posted the time capsule about New Year- I felt like another new year was starting. While January was full of new things, February was also full of firsts and beginnings.

Dinner prep by Soeun for House Church

First time going to church together 3/2/19
Once a month our  (English language) House Church has a meal together after our Sunday afternoon meeting. The first Sunday in February was our first time to go all together. The kids and I have been going to HC as much as we can for about just over a year now, with Soeun joining us once a year in December. In January we finished up at our Khmer church, so February was the start of our new Sundays. Its a potluck meal and we took a Khmer meat dish Soeun made.

First school-y type home school activities 4/2/19
In the first week of Feb I was greeted by the sight of the magnet letters arranged in order on the fridge. The kids stood proudly beside it to see my reaction.

I was surprised, and also surprised to discover that it was like the starter pistol for our school type work. The kids have been out of preschool since June, just playing and we've been reading to them. I was thinking at some stage to start some letters and numbers with our oldest but it hadn't been time yet.

Suddenly it was time and we set up the small table with their chairs in the home school room. A few mornings a week the older does a little bit of maths or letters, while the younger keeps herself busy with snipping and scribbling.

Coincidentally early Feb is also the start of the Australian school. I hadn't planned that we would necessarily follow the Aus school year.

First warm days and Chinese New Year 5/2/19
That same week CNY, and on that very day the weather suddenly got a bit warmer, after months of cool season. People in China call it Spring Festival, and it feels like a fitting name for it here, much more than it does in north east China where everything is still frozen at that time of year!

First football match with newly formed team 9/2/19
Since December Soeun has spent one afternoon a week with some local boys and a football trainer. This new nameless team had its first match on the second Saturday in Feb. Soeun is still feeling surprised and excited about the team.

First trip to a new community out of town 10-11/02/19
The day after the first football match, Soeun left on his motorbike for his first visit to a new church a couple of hours away. He got there in time for their Sunday afternoon meeting and stayed overnight and spent some time meeting the community the next day. I'm not sure if new church is an accurate description, we are still learning about the situation. He came in contact with them through a church we used to be part of, they sent a pastor to live there and requested Soeun come and help with Bible teaching.

Ready for a long ride to the teaching location

First time teaching How to Study the Bible (again)
In late late Feb, so late it ended up being in March, Soeun spent another couple of nights out of town. He was helping teach a course with others at a location new to him. He loves teaching How to Study the Bible and was excited he got time at the end to help the students practice their new skill, not just regurgitate information for an exam.

First fun for the kids
We dug out a Lego kit we were given ages ago. Our oldest was so excited to play with his own Lego for the first time! And then we bought a second box at a toy shop. He already uses anything and everything to build, so he was more than ready.

Daddy asked them to water the plants...

We read books every day, and we still have a few books that we received back in June that we haven't read yet! In Feb I read them a kids book about the Titanic. It was their first time to hear about it, and our oldest became even more obsessed with boat building than before.

We are also reading other new interesting titles about alligators, Lewis and Clark and Johnny Appleseed. Each of these books needs to be read to them multiple times a day and they branch off into other lines of interest and research. Mostly to do with American history and animals. Like the ground hog, which is also called a Woodchuck. This branched out into learning the tongue twister. So many fun things for kids to learn, so far we have been following their interests and looking things up on Youtube together to learn science and history. 



The kids also happily played in the water for basically the first time. In this tropical tourist town lots of playdates revolve around the swimming pool. Its mostly not that fun for us but hopefully things are changing.

Soeun sent the kids on a treasure hunt one day. They had to read a map he drew and follow it until they found their afternoon snack in a jar! He put it together while they were asleep, they were so surprised. Our oldest had so much fun he responded by making a map for Daddy too. 

Our son's own idea and design: mini beach umbrellas for his toy beach 

One week we had some Khmer friends and relatives staying for a few nights. The kids had so much fun with them while I had some time off to read etc. In their wake then left some lovely potted plants on our front steps, as well as a variety of homemade toys such as a cardboard sword and a pull along vehicle made from a bottle and bottle lids.

Homemade beach

And now I'm posting this when it is already half way through March, hot season has started!! This week is mostly 38. Our water pump seems to be complaining. Really hoping its because its broken and not because of the extra hot and extra dry time we're in. In Aus during a drought the government will put water restrictions in place. Here it seems some people on town water just have their water turned off randomly for long unpredictable stretches. We've been trying to use less the last few weeks, we still have maybe a month and half of official hot season to go though. 

New! {Time capsule}

Just jotting down how life is now before it changes....

New! Baby chicks hatched while we were at church the Sunday before Christmas. Soeun got home first and was surprised to see them walking around the yard. And the family recently brought a second rooster from the province, so with the babies and new rooster its pretty noisy!

New! Since early December Soeun has been playing soccer weekly with a group of teenage boys from the neighbourhood.

New? Sundays have always been a juggle, we have tried lots of different combinations over the years in terms of local/expat church. Most of the time if feels like we can't be fully part of either. And this was all before kids and chronic illness joined the family. With the kids getting older we may need to adjust again...

New year... Soeun invited a few guys over to eat duck in the evening...20 people later and 5 more ducks....

New creations by the kids. They love building... the last half year we have had "spaceships", "houses", "boats", all big enough to climb into. This month the indoor preschool construction isn't one you climb inside. It's a carrier with some jet fighters etc, as well as some other boats. See photo. He took millions of these photos.

New perspectives on homeschooling. So I read about deschooling ages ago, and now looking back on the last half year it feels like the first few months with the kids at home were the hardest. They say not to do any school work at first, if you are taking your kids out of school, as getting used to being altogether at home needs to happen first. Feels like that how it worked out for us, not that we are doing any schooly type work yet anyway. Which makes me wonder how school families cope with school holidays! Kids would never be home long enough to get used to it?

New! Favourite song of the kids this month is Flawless by MercyMe.

An Aus-Khmer Advent with chronic illness {A Chronic Voice Linkup}

Happy Birthday Jesus.  

“Articulating lifelong illness”. 

When I saw this tagline of A Chronic Voice blog I was excited.  If only I had something like this to read years ago when my husband’s illness was new and debilitating, perhaps things would have been less overwhelming.  Invisible challenges choked us that season, so to have them expressed feels like Ventolin for an asthmatic.   

The 5 link up prompts for this month seem like a great way to record our family’s lead up to Christmas this year. De-stressing, Savouring,Simplifying, Resting and Finalising.

De-stressing

Most of 2018 was one big de-stress for me! A “normal” year in my adult life usually involves either:  giving birth, having to travel overseas or moving house. Those events suck up all my emotional energy.   But this year was free of big transitions. I had time and energy for other things.

Having said that, the last few months both my husband and I have been unwell-ish. His chronic vestibular symptoms are always likely to flare up during stormy season so his sickness didn't take us by surprise. But we weren’t expecting me to also be fatigued. I  found myself tired in September, no matter how much sleep I got and how well I tried to balance bike riding and vegetable eating. I’ve had some tests and will have some more soon (anemia? thyroid?).

So we started December on low energy and not knowing if we would be feeling better soon or not. Knowing that meant we didn’t have expectations of doing too much.

Savouring

Although my husband Soeun has been sick recently we are savouring that is stress free compared when it was new. It was like a dizzy monster had invaded our lives as I wrote about here.  Now we know what it is and know what we can and can’t do about it.  It’s horrible to see him in pain, and so frustrating for him but no longer debilitating and unknown.

My first few Christmases overseas it felt so wrong that December 25^th  was just a normal day in Asia. After growing up in Australia where Christmas is a public holiday I found it hard to get my head around seeing kids go to school and banks open as usual. And once I was even expected to work on Christmas day. Luckily I got dengue fever so ended up staying away from work. Phew!

Christmas in Asia was weird before, but now feels freeing.  Celebrations can take on a life of their own in Western cultures, and people can end up spending too much, eating too much and being too busy. In my situation I have the luxury of choosing which bits of an Aussie December I want to enjoy and teach my family about (I’m the only one with an Australian childhood behind me). We can leave behind bits that would cost too much in terms of money or energy.

I think parents always have the tendency to want their kids to have certain things from their own childhood, I feel like I see that a lot at Christmas with expat parents. And its great to carry on some family traditions but I'm also mindful of the fact that our cross cultural kids are having a totally different childhood to us. We're savouring the chance to create new family culture rather than striving to replicate everything from our own. 

Instant Advent inherited from expats 

Simplifying

With limited energy between us, and no pressure to decorate our house, exchange gifts, or whatever other things people do in the West, we ended up just reading about the birth of Jesus from the Bible and from Bible story books. I was thinking about making an advent calendar and/or reading plan, but in the end I just grabbed a Bible one night and we ended up reading bits and pieces from the gospels. We had no plan, so there was no such thing as missing a night and then having to catch up.

We didn’t make the toilet roll tree like we did the last 3 years, even though we had everything to do it. But we did watch our Veggie tales DVD and listen to Colin Buchanan (both inherited from Aussie missionary families who left).

A small plastic tree (also inherited) did end up going up a few days before Christmas, unlike last year. Although we never did find that bag of tinsel or make those paper chains.

The kids were excited on Christmas morning when they saw a box of “new” toys waiting for them. We didn’t buy or wrap any presents but, again, thanks to expat families who have since left town we have so many kids books and toys. We only have some out and any one time, and the others packed away. Every few months we rotate, and each time it’s a bit like Christmas. And this time it was actually Christmas.

Resting

In November there was a day when I used up all my energy and then frustratingly it took me a few days to recover. Even though by that stage I had noticed I was fatigued it still took me by surprise.  So resting was a high priority during advent, even though I’m pretty sure I’m feeling a bit better.  I couldn’t afford to run out of energy with the possibly of my co-parent also fatigued, dizzy and in pain.

Finalising 

By the time December 24^th arrived I felt we had completed all the big Christmas things, and we were ready to just stay home, eat easy to prep food and relax.

Our Cambodian church celebrated Christmas on December 9^th with a huge loud colourful church service, complete with a banquet afterwards. Dances, songs, a nativity play and lots of decorations made it a big event.  In Australia church services are held on December 25^th but it isn’t a holiday here so each church decides which Sunday to have their Christmas on.  It was strange for me to be at church on December 23^rd and see that Christmas was over.  All the Christmas decorations including the tree had been taken down already, although it was not yet Christmas Eve.  

Thanks to American friends we decorated “cookies” with others. I kind of wished I had energy to bake, but I was happy we could join friends for festivities. 

We gathered with other English speakers on December 16th to sing carols and look at what was said about Jesus before he was born (Isaiah chapter 9). I was glad we could enjoy an Advent meeting even though we missed the Christmas service. (Expats had Christmas on 23rd but we were at Khmer church.)

So when December 25th arrived we were breathing easily, perhaps similar to the post-Ventolin feeling of an asthmatic.  It wouldn’t matter if either or both of us were a bit unwell on Christmas day as we didn’t have any commitments and the children would be happy to play (with "new" toys) and eat at home.  Staying home with just the four of us and some food is basically our favourite holiday. It was a relief to do it and I think we all enjoyed the day. 

  

Water Festival, Fatigue, Family and Fire {Time Capsule}

A cold rainy day, the last drops of rainy season are falling!

The kids are busy building rockets and reading new-to-us-again books. We stored some kids books in a packing box for the last few months, opening it again this week felt so exciting.

So glad they can keep themselves entertained a bit more independently. I've been feeling so tired last few months (and I think there is a medical reason). Last week we had relatives staying and they did all the cooking and kids stuff so I just rested, mostly even too tired to read.

While family were here Soeun made a bonfire in the yard and the kids enjoyed cooking bread on sticks.

We totally missed all the boat race festivities in town, but we did have a couple of homeschooling families over one morning.

Expanding in October {Time Capsule}

It feels like everything got bigger in October. Well, by everything I mean the town and our health issues.

The town is expanding out to us. A few weeks ago the electricity company installed these huge concrete poles on one side of our street. They totally dwarf the homemade wooden sticks we have been using to hold up our cables.  Sorry no person or moto for scale but in the centre of the photo you can see a pole almost as tall as the palm, while on the right you can see our maybe three metre toothpick holding the wires.

Also our pin on google recently changed from 'unnamed road' to a string of letters and numbers! Exciting times. I have no idea what they are referring to though.

The kids had some one off days of fever, tummy upset etc etc, and I also was feeling really tired from late September. No matter how much I slept and tired everything, still exhausted. So last week I had some blood tests and turns out there are at least 2 reasons for that. Both treatable, seems straight forward, although for one I will need to travel out of town to find a doctor.

Regular routine in an irregular time period {Time capsule}

So far this blog feels like my favourite way to record what's happening, so here is our time capsule for mid July-ish until early October-ish.

Finished up at preschool but not yet started official homeschooling. We are getting used to all being at home together and still setting up things/unpacking in the house. It’s like deschooling, or homeschooling preschool or maybe even just playing and reading at home with the kids. 

Our ducklings are enjoying our flooded yard.

Within in this irregular time period there are some regular things that happen. Including but not limited to:

- one afternoon week we open the laptop and turn on Skype to talk to family members in other countries. We don't always end up catching them, but we have that regular afternoon when it might happen.

-Soeun is doing Psalms in a weekday cell group and Revelation for sermons. We have just set up an office for him so he can focus better. Bought a bookshelf, unpacked most of his books! We have a code word he uses to tell us he is going to work and can't play- because the kid always want to play with him.

The vacant lot opposite us fills up with water at this time of year. Apparently a good place to take your water buffalo. 

-weekly morning playdates with a group of people we have just started getting to know. Although a few of them I have sort of known for awhile, others just moved here. It feels like the 3rd wave of playdates since I moved to Siem Reap. The group that used to meet weekly when I arrived pretty much all left town around June 2016. Then I was meeting weekly with one or two others for awhile, but then all our kids were at preschool and we didn't meet as much, and then we moved we meant we couldn't do weekdays anymore. But now, post preschool we are getting to know some others from House Church and also starting to form a homeschool community. 3 years ago I asked on Fb if there were any homeschool families and got no response. As of the weekend we I know of 5 others!

Since we finished up at preschool in June its been nice to be able to use the market near our house regularly, I end up going every few days. The transition time between when we moved but hadn't yet stopped going to preschool didn't really allow me to shop at a market.

Soeun had to unexpectedly leave one night to go and stay at church overnight with all the water... 

Current favourites. From the 1960s and 70s, new to us via American friends. 

Out the front door.

Grand Finale of preschool {Time capsule}

Surprise! We found a water melon growing near out steps.

A time capsule of this transition which turned out to be surprisingly delightful.

It came sooner than I expected, and I felt happy instead of stressed. Taking the kids out of preschool has been looming before us for a while. We needed somewhere fun and safe for them to play over the last couple of years but now things have progressed and it’s time to get used to being at home together as we plan to try homeschooling.

The kids were going to be at preschool until the end of August...but in early June about 4 or 5 things came together and we realised we would finish up in June. It had been such a lifesaver, we put our eldest in in desperation- he needed more climbing and friends than we could find elsewhere.  So I thought taking them out would be hard, but when it was the right time it felt like we suddenly didn’t need it anymore.

Such a big relief- the thing I was dreading disappeared.

Dress up day at preschool

It was Fairy Tale Dress up day on the Thursday. Our son was so excited, he came up with the idea to dress up as the big bad wolf. He begged me to buy a grey t shirt to go with his grey shorts, he found socks to put on his arms and worked out a mask. We painted it together on the Wednesday afternoon. It was fun to see him having so much fun planning his costume. Painting with him at home also made me less stressed about homeschooling. Yes it was messy, but so thankful we have been given some paints and paint brushes, and he has so much fun painting. That was one of the things I like about preschool- they do so much fun messy stuff there, which the kids love and I don’t have to set up or clean up.

Our son worked hard writing and drawing on the Thursday afternoon, he was excited to make cards for his teachers. We also made granola for them in our toaster oven. Both our kids were given huge handmade cards with finger prints and photos of their class. I went early to pick up and got some photos of them near the world map with friends.

Some of the books we bought in the last week of preschool.

 Choosing a new-to-us book to take home was a feature of those last few days. A bookshop just opened up near preschool, full of English language kids books!!! As we won’t be in town much after this, I let the kids choose a book each 3 days in a row. Exciting, festive! Added to our Peppa collection, got our first Mr Man book and, our sons new favourite , our first Enid Blyton. I didn’t know if he would be ready for so many words and so little pictures but he LOVES it. I’m reading it to him for the second time now, he keeps asking for it again.

June skies are amazing

I was glad our son already had an idea about homeschool from when we visited a friend in February. All the other kids are going to different schools, or continuing on at the same school. He is just staying home to play and read books for now, but he calls it homeschool, and he is really excited about it. Yay!

Tuk tuk ride home on final day of preschool

I'm still being asked to read this book everyday almost a month after we bought it! I thought it would be too many words and not enough pictures but he loves it. The word "tiresome" has entered his vocab. 'oh Mummy, you are tiresome"

The first week after preschool we were up to Psalm 19 so that matched the amazing sunsets we were having. At the start of the week we had some kitchen shelves made for the pantry, I spent the next few days unpacking our kitchen boxes while Soeun and the kids went to visit Grandma. One child came back with a sore face after falling down some stairs! On the way back they had a boat ride at sunset. The next Sunday I went to house church and discovered a homeschooling family is moving near where we live (where no other expats live... yet?) Exciting times.

Soeun's sunset boat ride photo

Where our non cautious child met her swollen mouth.

New shelves, unpacking boxes we packed back in October.